Issues of greenhouse gas levels and climate change have led to development of technologies seeking to utilize natural cycles between fixed carbon and liberated carbon dioxide. As these technologies advance, various techniques to convert feedstocks into biofuels have been developed. However, even with the above advances in technology, there remains a need and a desire to improve economic viability for conversion of renewable carbon sources to fuels.
Vegetable oil derived biodiesel fuel may have benefits, such as being renewable, biodegradable, nontoxic, and containing neither sulfur nor aromatics versus conventional petroleum (fossil) diesel. But, one potential disadvantage of vegetable oil derived biodiesel is high cost, most of which is due to the cost of the vegetable oil feedstock. Therefore, the economic aspect of biodiesel fuel production has been at least somewhat limited by the cost of the vegetable oil raw materials.
Lipids for use in nutritional products can be produced in algae. Manufacturing a lipid in algae may include growing the algae, drying it, and extracting the intracellular lipids from it. Extracting material from within the algae can be difficult.
There is a need and a desire for methods and systems for extracting renewable materials from oleaginous microorganisms that result in a high yield of material extracted and minimal disruption of the cell wall structures.